Hey there! My name is Lauren and I'm a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. I work with Dr. Nathan Kraft's plant community ecology lab.

​My research focuses on how seed dispersal shapes plant community assembly; by combining field-collected data with ecological modeling, I investigate how species-specific dispersal differences among annual grassland species influence biodiversity locally and across landscapes.

I earned my B.S. in Plant Biology from UC Davis with minors in Professional Writing and Ecology, Evolution, & Biodiversity. There, I also completed my California Naturalist certification, which kickstarted my love for community science. You can find me documenting every organism I see on iNaturalist, eBird, or a number of other community science platforms.